A Northwoods Almanac for March 11 – 24, 2011
Sightings – Barred Owls
Jim Sommerfeldt on Middle Sugarbush Lake in Lac du Flambeau sent me two pictures of a barred owl that has been visiting his feeders. One photo was of the owl looking for a meal, and the other was right after he got a meal. To get the second photo, Jim watched as the owl swooped down to grab a red squirrel, but missed. Jim then noted, “The owl then took off and landed on a branch close to my feeders, patiently waiting for a meal to return. After 10-15 minutes, a red squirrel ventured out from a snow tunnel, and with his back to the owl, started to feed on sunflower seeds on the ground. The owl watched for 10 seconds and then went in for the kill . . . I don't know how the kill was made. But the owl had his back turned toward my house, and then he spread his wings . . . It seemed like he was in that position for a minute, and he was constantly turning his head around. After the minute he picked up his prey and took off.”
Rebekah and Willie Tollard in Minocqua also sent me a photo of a barred owl that has been hunting around their feeders since the beginning of February.
Other people have contacted me in recent weeks with sightings of a barred owl perched near their feeders. Their presence at feeders usually occurs late in the winter when these otherwise reclusive owls are unable to find prey in their natural deep woods habitat and are starving. I suspect the hard crusted snow has both diminished their ability to hear rodents tunneling through the snow and to then plunge into the snow to capture them.
Other Sightings of Note
Sharp-shinned Hawk: Licia Johnson, a naturalist at the North Lakeland Discovery Center, sent me a photo on 2/10 of an immature sharp-shinned hawk plucking a chickadee. She added, “The rest of the chickadees were going crazy!”
Raccoon: Ralph and Monica Haugen in Crystal Falls, MI, were surprised to observe a raccoon eating sunflower seeds that they put out for the birds. Ralph noted, “This is the first time in the ten years we have been living here that we have observed a raccoon out this early. We still have about 10 inches of snow on the ground.”
We’ve had raccoons occasionally visiting our bird feeders all winter, which is a first for us. Raccoons don’t hibernate, but rather become torpid or somewhat dormant, usually holing-up for most of the winter, and once in a while sauntering out if the temperature warms substantially.
Bobcat: Pam and Ron Ahles on the Pike Lake Chain looked out their bedroom window on 3/6 to see a bobcat sitting in the snow. “We observed him for sometime along with our house cat, before he saw us and took off.”
Ermine: Bob Kovar sent the following on 3/1: “Yesterday, I jumped in my hot tub to try and walk again after skiing the Birkie. I just got in when an ermine came running out from under the access door on the side. It ran up my walk and disappeared under my stoop. A minute later, it came back out, wanting to get back inside the tub access door. For 10 minutes, it came and went, even coming right up to the tub and looking up at me! I was amazed how unafraid of me it seemed.”
More on Snapping Turtles and Otters: In my last column, I reported Joe Mastalski’s sighting of numerous snapping turtles eaten by otters. Last week, Jon Hollander sent me some pictures of that spot along the Kaubashine Creek where the water flows all winter and there are a number open spots. He noted, “Sure looks like otters have been digging turtles out of the mud and having a feast. We saw seven recently eaten turtles. The pictures are of the largest, at 26” overall and 14” across the shell. Most of the others were nearly as large. There were otter tracks all around the area.”
Spring Migration Begins!
The statewide Wisconsin BirdNet has been full of excited observations of the first spring migrants returning to the southern part of the state. Sandhill cranes are back, as are the first vanguard of song, fox, and swamp sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, robins, winter wrens, northern harriers, turkey vultures, killdeer, great blue herons, and snipe.
Waterfowl are in particular abundance, with 15 species present.
One observer in Dane County found five eastern bluebird eggs in one of his next boxes on March 3, which would mean the hen had to start laying in February.
Last week, Jeff Richter from Mercer reported seeing 75+ common goldeneyes below the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage Dam at Robinson Landing.
Bill Bassett in Hazelhurst called on 2/28 to report seeing a belted kingfisher on the Tomahawk River!
Coming soon – expect the first robins and red-winged blackbirds to appear in our area right around spring equinox.
Hopkins Law
The sightings in southern Wisconsin always lead to the question of how soon we can expect the same species to appear in the Northwoods. We can relatively accurately predict the date of the first bloom of our spring flowers based on “Hopkins Law,” which says that phenological events (the seasonal march of observable biological events) vary at the rate of one day for each 15 minutes of latitude and one day for each 100 feet of altitude. So, for instance, if we compare biological events in Madison to those in Manitowish, Hopkin’s Law says there should be a 21-day interval between the two areas, given the distance apart and the differences in elevation.
How did I come up with that figure? One degree of latitude is about 69 miles, and since 15 minutes is one fourth of a degree, we can say spring moves north at a rate of about 17 miles per day. And since Madison is 250 miles from Manitowish, it should therefore take spring about 15 days to reach Manitowish from Madison (250 divided by 17). But because Manitowish is in the Northern Highlands region, which is higher in altitude (1600 feet) than areas around Madison (about 1,000 feet), we have to add an additional six days to the total. Thus, it takes about 21 days for spring to reach us, marching at an average rate of around 12 miles per day.
While bird migration is touchier to predict than wildflower blooming, the long and short of this is, if a friend in Madison calls to say she saw her first robin on March 1, Mary and I should expect to see our first robin around March 22.
I offer no money-back guarantees on this formula. Variations do occur along the Great Lakes, where “spring” is moderated by winds coming across the cold water. The figures are also considered valid only up to June 1, when other factors take control.
Celestial Events
Spring Equinox occurs on March 20, a devious bit of chicanery that teases us into thinking that spring should be here. Cast such thoughts far away if you wish to avoid the roller-coaster that March often so charmingly lures us onto. March is the Trickster – make no mistake. If you have an expectation of consistently improving weather that will be evident every day, you are doomed. The only way to win the game is to wake up every morning thankful for whatever the day provides, be it a blizzard or 50°.
March’s full moon occurs on the 19th, and is known variously as “Sap Moon,” the “Crust on Snow Moon,” and the “Crow Moon.” It’s even known as the “Death Moon,” I suspect because of how deadly the month can be for wildlife, as well as historically for how deadly it was for people when food ran out. This will be the largest full moon of the year because it is the closest – a mere 221,567 miles away.
Conserve School
I spent two delightful afternoons last week leading high school students on winter hikes at the Conserve School near Land O’Lakes. My topic was “transitions into spring,” which was not only premature but delusional. However, we had fun with it anyway.
If you’re not familiar with the Conserve School, I recommend visiting their website (www.conserveschool.org), and then, better yet, visiting the campus. Conserve School is now a one-semester residential school for high school juniors focused on the theme of environmental stewardship. The college preparatory curriculum immerses students in environmental history, nature literature, and the science of conservation on a beautiful 1,200-acre campus, with a significant portion of the curriculum delivered via outdoors, hands-on, active learning.
What’s more, there’s no cost – remarkably, all students receive a full scholarship for tuition, room, and board. If you have a son or daughter who loves the outdoors, you owe it to them to check the school out.
Connection and Compassion
Mary and I have been leading outdoor trips in the Northwoods for 21 years now, and when I’m asked what we hope to have happen on our outings, my stock answer has always been that I hope we help people to gain a deeper sense of place in the Northwoods, which we hope then leads to a stronger commitment to stewardship. Recently, however, someone asked me what it meant in the simplest terms to have a sense of place. And while it took me a while to unwrap it, I think it comes down to two things – having as many connections to a multitude of species in nature, and then translating those connections into the deepest compassion possible for all life. By compassion, I mean to look out for another’s best interest, to honor the sanctity of another’s life. You do this by putting yourself in another’s skin, and making a place for them in your mind and heart.
Making a place for another is a way of personalizing the broader concept of having “a sense of place,” which is our larger relationship to a landscape and to the enormous community of life it holds.
In any life practice, it seems to me that we have a choice – we can emphasize teachings that speak of dislike, contempt, disdain, hatred, and exclusion, or we can emphasize teachings that speak of compassion and of making a place for others. Mary and I have chosen the latter path, and while we will always struggle mightily to both articulate it and to live it, we at least feel our feet are on the right path.
A final note: see “The Charter for Compassion,” a call to action for people to treat others as we wish to be treated ourselves – www.charterforcompassion.org.
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